The secret of American collegiate teams being so good is sports scholarships. I.e. you get in because you're already good at a sport and not on the basis of your academic achievements.

Exactly. One of my old football teammates has gone to America this year on a football scholarship to some university there (not one of the big ones). Been hearing about it cos his brother is a good friend of my brother. Anyway he just lives for football, hoping to be a professional but there was some sort of cock up with his registration which means he is unable to play football this season. Bizarrely he is eligible for American Football and is actually in their team! So he's gone on a proper football scholarship and has ended up playing American Football.

Went digging to see if there was a baseball thread to bring this up in and there was. It is a bit old though so this may seem a little random.

Coming up for the World series time again and boy am I excited. might even put in a trial subscription to Setanta to watch it, especially cause I'm off next week. Although subscribing to MLB TV online would be cheaper...

Anyway, when I was in Florida in the summer we spent a night in Tampa to go to Busch Gardens and we ended up going to see the Tampa Bay Rays play the Red Sox. Knew absolutely nothing about Baseball when we went but the atmosphere was so electric, by the end I was hooked. In that game the Rays scored 6 in the bottom of the 7th coming back from 4-1 down to win. It was so amazing and I really started to get the rules and tactics.

Anyway, since we've come home I've kept a good eye on the Rays and watched a bit on channel 5 but this week their playing to qualify for the World series and they're currently 3-1 up against the Red Sox (it's a 7 game series) with home stadium advantage. They look like they're gonna end up playing Philly in the World series. It's a total Cinderella story seeing that they've been at the bottom of the league for about 70 years!

Apologies to anyone who knows about all this but I'm dead excited! Let's go Rays!!!

I'm a Rays fan too! We've seen them at the Trop the last couple of years while on holiday, they beat the Red Sox last year and then the Angels this, so I've followed them closly for a little over a year. I watched quite a lot of their last series against the White Sox on the Internet but I haven't been able to find any streams showing the Boston series. We're back going top back too Florida next week because we won a free holiday there, so hopefully we (or just me and my Dad) can go and see one of the World Series games!

How closely do you follow them then? Behind Andy and Wycombe (my local footy team) they're probably the sports team I follow the most. Although you said they've been bottom for about 70 years, they were only founded in 1998. Also they were without their two best players for the last month or so of the season.

A load of American sportsmen are on ridiculous salaries though. The NFL players are worse, andtheir season is only 16 games + playoffs. At least the baseball guys have to play almost every day for about 6 months as it is a 162 game season. No footballer would play with a even a whole days rest, and they only play for 90 minutes while Baseball matches regularly last over 3 hours and sometimes up to 5.

I'm a Rays fan too! We've seen them at the Trop the last couple of years while on holiday, they beat the Red Sox last year and then the Angels this, so I've followed them closly for a little over a year. I watched quite a lot of their last series against the White Sox on the Internet but I haven't been able to find any streams showing the Boston series. We're back going top back too Florida next week because we won a free holiday there, so hopefully we (or just me and my Dad) can go and see one of the World Series games!

How closely do you follow them then? Behind Andy and Wycombe (my local footy team) they're probably the sports team I follow the most. Although you said they've been bottom for about 70 years, they were only founded in 1998. Also they were without their two best players for the last month or so of the season.

Are you going to watch game 5 tonight?

Just since we went to see them in July. It was the guy in the taxi that said they'd been on the bottom for 70 years. So there must have been a Tampa team before the Rays that were crap cause he was telling us that we'd definately picked the right season to come and watch them play.

As far as following them I tend to check on their scores and recent results whenever I'm on but seeing as Baseball isn't exactly accessable, even with Sky Sports, I don't tend to get to see them.

However, my bro payed for MLB TV about a fortnight ago and has it till the end of the world series. But he's not gonna be able to wach it tonight so I've got his password.

Let's go Rays! (don't know how impressed my folks'd be if I started ringing my cowbell...)